As our helicopter swoops down and we clamber on to the Esperanza, it feels like an action scene from a war movie. And for the embattled dolphins of the English Channel's western approaches, war is exactly what they are facing. The enemy are the sea bass fishermen, who slaughter hundreds of dolphins, whales and porpoises every year - and the British and European governments who let them get away with it. And their allies are the 35-strong crew of the eco-warship the Esperanza - Greenpeace's biggest and newest vessel - who have just set sail from Falmouth to monitor the French and Scottish fishermen. From the front line of environmental campaigning, Greenpeace aims to prove to the pen-pushing politicians in London and Brussels that an ecological disaster is unfolding in their own back yard.